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River and Plants
All articles filed in Exhibitions
Open House Printmakers: New Work
We set up our new exhibition at the Oxford Gallery, on the 6th October. As you can see we have very different approaches to printmaking.
OPEN HOUSE PRINTMAKERS : NEW WORK
Kathy Anderson, Jo Ernsten, Casey Macaulay, Ruth Stanton-Mcleod, Kris Waldin, Tessa Warburton & Celia Wilson
7-24 October 2021
Here is my submission.
For this set of hand coloured prints I concentrated on the flora and fauna of the River Eyre/Waiaraki to show the displacement of bird life by introduced by exotic plant life. The plants take on an imaginary shape, though based on actual plants. These prints were influenced by medieval illustrations; I felt our present day understanding of nature is in some respect no different to their ideas of what exotic animals might look like. My work always comes out ‘pretty’ no matter how hard I try to make it the opposite! I really enjoyed painting these prints.
Ed 2/5 EV “Herbarium Exotica V” Celia Wilson
A Wrybill is the bird shown in this print.
LOCALity
I took part in this exhibition, and showed some of my paintings made with ink from empty seed pods from Harakeke (NZ flax plant). I also held a paintmaking workshop.
Here is the published information:
Last days for the exhibition LOCALity at Arts in Oxford, 72 Main St, Oxford. Exhibition closes Tues 10 July 2018.
LOCALity: a group exhibition exploring location, materiality & positioning
Arts in Oxford is pleased to present a selection of artworks by Canterbury artists Mark Adams, Mike Boot, Tony Bond, Cheryl Lucas, Elfi Spiewack, Tessa Warburton and Celia Wilson.
Artists each have diverse, unique practices but collectively are themes of rural life that connect all the works. Local geology, farming industry, water issues, native and introduced flora, recycling, repurposing are all reflected in this curated exhibition.
Images by Arts In Oxford.
(You can just see my artworks on the wall in this photo above.)
Press Release:
Art_in_Oxford_LOCALity_Press Release_final-1
Paintmaking Workshop
I am holding a paintmaking workshop on Saturday 23rd June. If you are interested please book at the gallery to reserve a place.
We are also holding two other workshops to accompany the exhibition LOCALity now on show at Arts in Oxford, North Canterbury.
Wrybills
Been a while since I have posted, but I have been otherwise occupied with the gallery at Arts in Oxford.
No painting, no prints, no solar dyes. Well, actually, I have done some on the odd occasion, and I had to do some mono prints for the exhibition “From the Rivers to the Shore” which was on at the gallery from 10 June for five weeks. The show is now on at The Depot Artspace in Devonport, Auckland. From there it will go up to the Hokianga, at Rawene, in No 1 Parnell Gallery.
I was delighted to sell the work I exhibited in Oxford North Canterbury, which is this one below. Wyrbills are the only bird on the planet with a bill that bends to the right – it is endangered due to habitat loss on the braided rivers of the South Island of New Zealand, where this species breeds, and on the distant shores it visits during its annual migration to overwinter in warmer climes. It is also endangered due to predators and weed invasion of the bare rock covered areas of the braided rivers where the eggs are laid amongst the rocks. In conjunction with Braided River Aid, the gallery hosted a panel discussion with two Canterbury University academics from the Biological Sciences department who are researching nearly everything you can think of to help these and other endangered birds.
The rocks are coloured with pigments from the river rocks. You can see the curve of the bill in this sketch below!
Paintmaking in the Gallery
As part of our group exhibition, Accumulative, I will be in the Arts in Oxford Gallery this Sunday 23 October from 10.30 am until 4 pm making paint from rock from the Canterbury area and further afield.
Hope to see you there!
‘Accumulative’ exhibition Print
Waimakariri Near and Far, mono print on paper. Detail of one of my Accumulative exhibition prints with Waimakariri and Waikari rock paints.
Not doing any artwork …
***OH! I WAS busy – just found this draft; so I thought, well, I might as not post it right now.
The show was a great success, with nearly fifty memberships for the Friends group, and all but two of the auction works passed reserve, raising some much appreciated donations to the gallery.
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I’ve been VERY busy at Arts in Oxford, helping out with the next show that is called
C A L E N D A R
This exhibition is to celebrate the wonderful art and craft that abounds in North Canterbury – and other places in New Zealand of course! Last year the gallery published a case calendar which was a sell-out! So obviously we decided to do another one – ‘do’ means my help with the design work.
I know I am being a little ahead of publication (which is on 3 September) but here is the cover image which is of one of Serena McWilliams’ machine 3D embroideries:
In connection with this exhibition, the gallery is also launching a group – Friends of the Gallery – and we hope to encourage more involvement with the gallery through a programme of events available to members. The gallery was founded with the intention of becoming a centre of the arts for a community that is about an hour’s drive away from the cultural centre of Christchurch, our nearest city. So this initiative is intended to represent the development that we feel we can make after five years existence as an art gallery. To help with fund raising our wonderfully supportive artists have each donated a work to be entered in a silent auction.
Colours from a Landscape
I am currently showing some pigment colour swatches at the Dunedin Botanic Gardens, and in October I am doing a workshop on making paint. This exhibition was facilitated through the Blue Oyster Gallery in Dunedin. Also included in the show are some natural pigments on paper – eco prints – and some raw pigment. The two artworks on paper show colours from Waikari (green) and Ashley Gorge (pink and green) in North Canterbury. Many thanks to Clare Fraser from the Dunedin Botanic Gardens who is in charge of the venue. I think the colours look fantastic presented on black paper against the lovely red walls of the Information Centre!
The pigment swatches each show a colour found at a specific location which is named on the swatch.
Appearing below are some of the photos I received from Jaime Hanton, Blue Oyster Gallery, Dunedin, who kindly photographed the show and installed the work for me :
This is not my anticipated installation for this show as the initial selection was stolen. My box was left on the pavement by the courier company and disappeared overnight. The items in this box were some of those in the photograph shown in the display case, bottom left corner. If, by any chance, they turn up, I would just love to have them back. They represent five years research, experiment and recording. I have given up hope of ever seeing them again, however, and will re-build as much of the information as I can… Worse things happen, and I ‘count my blessings’.
Shells were traditionally used for paint containers!
“Sense of Place”
Scenes from Sense of Place exhibition 28 July – 9 September 2012 at the Hastings City Art Gallery
Celia Wilson
Kim Lowe
Christina Silaghi
Helga Goran
Celia Wilson 
